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FORESTRY PROBLEMS IN THE 
UNITED STATES 



THOMAS P. IVY, B. A. 



1906 
Hekdersonyille, North Carolina 



CLo(>tj I 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

APR 16 1906 

/i) Coay right Entry 
CLASS Q_' >vXc, No 

/ ^ 9 09^ 



.15 



Copyright, 1906, by 
Thomas P. Ivy 



FOREWORD. 



"Express yourself. 
Whatever you are, out with it ! 
We do not want a world of niasqueraders. 
Make yourself felt, make your real self felt. 
Put your private stamp upon the future." 

THE writing of this pamphlet was undertaken to jiresent in a 
short space and in uncensored language the forest situation as 
it ap2:)ears to be to-day in the United States. It is the opinion 
of the writer that much of what the National Government is doing in 
the name of forestry is based on a mistaken forest policy, and if con- 
tinued the nation as a whole will be in a worse forest condition an 
hundred years hence than if our present forest problems had been left 
to individuals and to the States to work out. If this contention is 
true, it is most important that the error be corrected now. AVhether 
there are errors or not can only be ascertained by a free discussion of 
forestry in Congress, on the rostrum, and in the public prints. Cer- 
tainly it is supreme folly to leave a subject so vital to every citizen, 
State, and Territory, to be dealt with by the exclusive judgment of 

one person, the United States Forester. 

THOMAS P. IVY. 

DuNLiNNE, Centre Conway, N. H., March 1, 1906. 



THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 



WHERE, WHEN AND HOW ACQUIRED. 



1783 — Treaty of Peace with Great 
Britain gave to United States 
all land she held in America by 
discovery or treaty with Hol- 
land, France and Spain. 
Area : 259,171,787 acres. 

1798 — Concession from State of 
Georgia. 

Area : 56,689,920 acres. 

Cost: $6,200,000. 

Cost per acre : 10 10-11 cents. 

1803 — Louisiana Purchase ( France). 

Area : 756,961,280 acres. 
Cost: $27,269,621.98. 
Cost per acre : 3% cents. 

1819 — East and West Florida (Spain). 

Area : 37,931,520 acres. 

Cost: $6,489,768. 

Cost per acre : 17 1-10 cents. 

1845 — Texas Purchase. 

Area : 61,892,480 acres. 

Cost: $16,000,000. 

Cost per acre : 25 17-20 cents. 

1848 — Gauda loupe-Hidalgo (Mexico). 

Area : 334,443,520 acres. 

Cost: $15,000,000. 

Cost per acre : 4^^ cents. 



1853 — Gadsden Purchase (Mexico). 

Area : 29,142,400 acres. 

Cost: $10,000,000. 

Cost per acre : 34 3-10 cents. 

1867^ — Alaska Purchase (Russia). 

Area : 369,529,000 acres. 

Cost: $7,200,000. 

Cost per acre : 1 19-20 cents. 

Total cession 259,171,787 acres. 

Total purchases . . . 1,589,900,800 " 



Grand total . . . 1,849,072,587 " 

Total cost of purchases.. .$81,957,389.98 
Average cost per acre. ... 5 1-10 cents 

OUR INSULAR POSSESSIONS. 

1898 — Hawaiian Islands. 

Area: 4,313,600 acres. 
Cost : Annexed. 

1899 — Porto Rico, Philippine Islands: 
(Spain) Treaty of Paris. 

Area : Porto Rico, 2,295,280 acres. 
Philippine Islands, 73,616,640 
acres. 
Cost: $20,000,000 for the Philip- 
pine Islands. Porto Rico 
ceded. 
The Public Domain in the Philippines 
is estimated at 61,000,000 acres. Of 
this 40,000,000 acres are forest lands. 



THE FOREST SERVICE AND THE CIVIL SERVICE. 



Forestry, in general, may be fairly defined as the treatment of land 
and tree growth for the maintenance or creation of woodland to be 
utilized for forest products, or for a protective covering, or for pleas- 
ure, or for all of these purposes. But tlie growing and han'"esting of 
timber and wood for man's use must always remain the central idea 
and leading purpose of forestry. The utility of the forest floor for 
conserving the rainfall and the retention of trees for landscape effects 
are the incidental, not the essential, features of forestry, although 
under the first of these heads conditions might exist that demanded a 
forest for the influence solely in regulating the rate of the run-ofl of 
the rainfall. 

The earliest adoption of forestry principles in this country was 
at Exeter in JSTew Hampshire, in 1640, when regulations for the cut- 
ting of oak were promulgated. From that date down to our own time 
very little was done because our forests were so abundant that pro- 
vision for the future seemed unnecessary. After the Republic was 
established, the rapid settlement of the country, the extensive railroad 
and mineral development, the requirements of pulp for the press and 
the demands of almost every line of manufacture made such inroads 
upon the visible supply as to cause some uneasiness about future sup- 
plies. In response to this feeling the Congress appropriated, in 1S76, 
$2,000 for a forestal agency in the Department of AgTiculture. From 
that date to 1898 there were, in order, three chiefs — Drs. Hough, Eg- 
gleston and Fernow — of the Division of Forestry. These men had 
many difliculties to encounter — most of all, a lukewarm public senti- 
ment manifest in the small annual appropriation by the CongTess for 
prosecuting their inquiries. But these men, for their earnest efforts 
in the infancy of forestry in the United States, should not be deprived 
of their meed of praise. The works of Dr. Hough will always be a 
valuable source of reference, and Dr. B. E. Fernow we still have 
with us as our most learned book forester. 

In 1898 the present United States Forester, Mr. Gifford Pinchot, 
came into power. With his advent the appropriation has been in- 



6 

creased greatly — from $2,000 in 1S76 to $900,000 last year, 1905. 
The scope of forestry work and investigatioii has also been enlarged 
and the division raised to a Bureau in the Department of Agriculture. 
Whether all that Mr. Pinchot has done and is doing is forestry, or 
merely carrying out his personal wishes and ambition, intelligent 
criticism and judgment must decide. Besides being the United States 
Porester, Mr. Pinchot is one of the founders and the promoter of the 
Yale Forest School. Out of his school about 80 per cent, of the for- 
esters that now yearly get places are taken. The remaining 20 per 
cent, come from the other half-dozen forestry schools, or schools that 
teach forestry, in the rest of the United States. 

As has been stated, governmental forestry started as an agency in 
the Department of Agriculture in 1876. The agency was promoted 
successively to a division (1881) and a Bureau (1901). In 1905 
there was a change in nomenclature, and what had been known as the 
Bureau of Forestry became the Forest Service. The term "Forest 
Service" includes the organization, the work, and the men and officers 
Avho do the work of the government, in looking after the National 
Reserves, and such other operations of a forestry nature as the United 
States Forester decides to engage in. 

The varied work of the Forest Service is organized under seven 
offices, viz. : Office of Forester ; Office of Measurements ; Office of 
Management ; Office of Extension ; Office of Dendrology ; Office of 
Products ; Office of Records. These seven offices are again sub- 
divided into sections. ]!^ominally, the Secretary of Agriculture is 
at the head of the Forest Service. But it is well known that, practi- 
cally, the Secretary of Agriculture is so busy on his farms he neg- 
lects his forests altogether. The real head is the United States For- 
ester, to whom everybody is responsible, and he is responsible to 
nobody. In his absence the Associate Forester, the chief executive 
officer, acts. The Fiscal Agent conies next after the Associate For- 
ester. 

The number of officers and men engaged in the several grades of 
the Forest Service are as follows : 1 Forester, 1 Associate Forester, 
5 Assistant Foresters, 10 Forest Insi^ectors, 6 Assistant Forest In- 
spectors, 102 Forest Assistants, 13 Forest Agents, 14 Experts, 9 En- 
gineers of Tests, 2 Civil Engineers, 79 officers in charge of Re- 
serves, 390 Forest Rangers — a total of 532. How inadequate this 



number is, compared to what the force should be if the forests of the 
United States were properly cared for, can be shown b}^ referring to 
European states. France has a forest force, all told, of nearly 4,000, 
and Great Britain, to manage and protect the forests of India, em- 
ploys 10,000 in the ranks from guards to conservators. The salaries 
of field men in our Forest Service range from $700 to $3,500. 
Kangers receive from $700 to $800 ; Forest Assistants, from $900 
to $1,400 ; Super^dsors, from $1,000 to $2,000. If the service is to 
have good men and retain them, these salaries will have to be in- 
creased. 'No class of men belonging to the government service deserves 
good pay so much as the Forester. His life is one exposed to many 
risks and hazards and his whole time is devoted to his profession, 
usually away from and out of touch with civilization, without the 
usual opportunities of other men for the investment of his savings, 
if he is fortunate enough to have any. 

Positions in the Forest Service are supposed to be reached through 
examination under tlie Civil Service laws. The Act of Congress of 
February 1, 1905, transferred the Reserves from the Department of 
the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. But before the trans- 
fer bill could be passed, all of the existing officers and employees on 
the Reserves were classified and placed under the Civil Service rules. 
Furthermore, section 3 of the Transfer Act provided that all super- 
visors and rangers needed in the future for the Reserves should be 
selected, when practicable, ''from qualified citizens of the States or 
Territories in which said Reserves, respectively, are situated." This 
was a wise provision, and if carried out will have a salutary influence. 
It was intended to protect citizens of a State in their rights which 
residence in the State or Territory conferred. P)esides, it would tend 
to bring the Forest Service in direct touch with the people. But if 
the present United States Forester exercises the same arbitrary 
methods with Rangers and Supervisors that he does in other branches 
of the service, section 3 may as well have been omitted. Apparently 
no law or statute can stand in the way of his personal wishes and 
prejudices. 

The examination for Rangers and Supervisors ' hinges more on 
physical and moral qualities than mental attainments. It is different 
with the Forest Assistant. He requires technical qualifications of a 



higli order and lias to pass an examination in scientific forestry, 
dendrology and lumbering, for which a course of two years at a forest 
school, provided he is already a college graduate, is usually taken to 
prepare himself thoroughly. Examinations for Forest Assistants are 
held usually at several places. They are held under the auspices of 
the Civil Service Commission, and the names of those who pass — 
that is, those who receive the required government percentage of 
70 — are placed by the Civil Service Commission on the register in 
the order of their rating. Now, that is all the part the Civil Serv- 
ice Commission takes, in or after the examination. The United 
States Forester does all the rest. He makes up the questions for the 
examination papers and he appoints the men to rate the papers. 
When he wishes a Forester and goes to the Civil Service Commis- 
sioner for a name, if he does not like the man whose name is offered to 
him he can reject it. After a Forester has been on the register of the 
Civil Seiwice Commission for a year he is disqualified and all of his 
work counts for nothing so far as the government employment is con- 
cerned. Such are the rules and regulations, called Civil Service, that 
ha^•e been established at the instance of the present United States 
Forester, that he may exert his benign influence to keep all out of the 
Forest Service who do not come within the favored circle. 

In a letter addressed to the Civil Service Commission in December 
last, the writer went over this whole ground. A portion of that letter 
is reproduced hero : 

''Let us begin with the examination, where the Commission and 
the candidate first touch elbows. The sheets on which answers are to 
be written should have nothing on the top margin exce])t (1) the sub- 
ject of examination, (2) the date, (3) the candidate's examination 
number. The candidate's name and residence, the name of the place 
where the examination is held, should all be written in the begin- 
ning of the examination on a separate slip bearing the candidate's 
examination number. This slip should be used only to identify the 
candidate after his papers are rated. If such sheets as these were 
delivered to the parties authorized to rate them, there would be on 
them the least possible evidence by which the identity of the candi- 
date might be revealed to the examiner. Leaving off the name of the 
place where the examination is held would also tend to disguise the 



9 

forest school of the candidate and to that extent put all the forest 
schools on the same basis. The examination over, the next move is to 
have the papers rated. Who should do this? Your custom is to 
assign the work to officials of the Forest Service, oiviu^ the jiapers on 
Technical Forestry that count 50 per cent, out of the possible 100 per 
cent, to the Associate Forester, This is one of the worst features. 
These forest officials are administrative officers whose duties lie afield 
vv'ith the men after they have been taken into the Service. These 
duties should occupy all their thought and time, and they are such 
duties as do not induce that condition of mentality which can weigh 
and balance the fine differences required to be adjusted in rating 
these papers. That is strictly a professional and judicial function. 

"A second objection : The Associate Forester has had more or less 
correspondence with every candidate the preceding one or two years, 
and therefore the sheets, though carefully guarded, as suggested, do 
not disguise the identity of the candidate from him. 

"A third objection: Making an administrative official and an 
examining official one and the same is confounding officers that ought 
to be kept separate. jN^o man can properly serve two conflicting in- 
terests at the same time. The revelations of recent insurance investi- 
gations bear directly on this point. Other departments of the govern- 
ment take cognizance of this. For admission both to the Army and 
jSTavy we find that the cadets are not examined by their commanders 
in the field. This practice must be a good one, or it would not have 
been continued for a century. Therefore, I say have the papers rated 
by an impartial board, wholly distinct from the administrative forest 
officials. 

"The examination and rating over, the candidates who have re- 
ceived the necessary percentage to pass are entered on the Eligible 
Register in the order of the percentages obtained in the examination. 
A vacancy occurs in the Forest Service. How do you fill it ? Three 
names, you say, beginning with the highest percentage man on the 
register, are taken in order. From these three the United States For- 
ester, or, in his stead, the Assistant Forester, has to take one to fill 
the vacancy, and may reject any two of them. The two rejected ones 
go back on the register in their respective order and wait for another 
vacancy and chance. In this way either or both of them may be 
rejected to the end of the year, when their eligibility expires. Why 



10 

give this right of choice ? It certainly deprives the highest per- 
centage man of the value of his scholarship, for he is placed on the 
same basis with the man of lowest rating. How you can compute 
fairness and justice in the procedure 1 am at a loss to understand. 
Why should the United States Forester be given any choice at all? 
It is just at this juncture you permit ' person alism' to come into the 
Forest Service. 'Can't we trust the United States Forester to do the 
square thing?' you ask. ]^o human being can be entrusted Avitli un- 
checked arbitrary power. When we bridge a stream we do not make 
the plans for the low-water mark, but for the liigh-water mark. We 
want a structure that will afford transportation at any season of the 
year and under all conditions of the weather. When you bestow 
upon the United States Forester the right of choice and rejection, 
you are surely making your bridge plans from the low-water mark. 
Your procedure, relative to the man on the register, is a lottery, a 
gamble, in which the United States Forester is both stake-holder and 
judge. And I undertake to say, without fear of successful contradic- 
tion, that no man on the Eligible Register, no matter how high his per- 
centage or how valuable his services might be to the country, can enter 
the Forest Service unless he is in personal favor with the United 
States Forester ; that any man, however worthless in character and 
of mediocre intellect and technical acquirements, can enter the Forest 
Service if he is in personal favor with the United States Forester. 
That is to say, your present methods and procedure make both these 
contingencies possible. 

"Xow, why not do away with all this lottery and gamble ? Ought 
it to be true that a young Forester who has spent two years of his life 
and $2,000 of his money to pass the examination, when he has passed, 
holds nothing but a ticket in a lottery wliere the drawing is manipu- 
lated by a device which does not permit even the fairness of luck ? 
W^hy not adopt the straightforward methods of the CJorman Forest 
Service ? There the candidate who passes the examination is placed 
on the Eligible Register in the order of his rating. When a vacancy 
occurs priority rules and eligibility is continuous, so that every man 
on the eligible list is sure of an aiipointment if he is willing to wait 
for the vacancy." 

To this letter the Civil Service Commission, with their usual cour- 
tesy, replied in part as follows : 



11 

''The Commission desires to thank you for the very excellent sug- 
gestion made in your letter concerning the methods which are desir- 
able in conducting examinations and in making certification. The 
provisions of the Civil Service law and rules, however, render it 
impossible for this office to secure assistance in rating; papers of per- 
sons who are not connected with the Government Service, and the 
Commission is unaware of any competent person in the Government 
Service along forestry lines except those in the Department of Agri- 
culture. Under these conditions, it is obliged to depart somewhat 
from the ideal system which would entirely separate the nominating 
and appointing power from that engaged in rating the papers of com- 
petitors. Under these rules, the Commission is required to certify 
the names of the highest three eligibles, if there be that many, in 
order that the appointing officer may exercise a proper discretion in 
selection for the service." 

If the rules are not fair, as the Commission practically concedes, 
why are they not changed ? Without doubt, because the United States 
Forester does not want them changed. As they are, he is judge and 
editor, prosecuting attorney and. jury, all combined in one. In no 
other department of the Government can there be found such absolute 
and comprehensive powder placed in one individual's possession. The 
whole Forest Service lies helpless at his feet, to be made use of to 
carry out his personal ends and ambitions, which may or may not be 
the forest interests of the countr}^ 

The same dictatorship is also over those who wish to come into the 
Forest Service. For them he sets the trap, he prejDares the bait, and 
he catches only game pleasing to his palate. Under such methods the 
Forest Service can never be representative of the American people. 
It will become only a type — a type that must consider the United 
States Forester greater than the United States i^eoide. 

But what we want is a Forest Service made up of all classes of the 
people. There should be no distinction, no difference in treatment of 
Jew or Gentile, of Catholic or Protestant, for of all these is the 
American i^ation. This has been the policy in the Army and iSTavy, 
and so far, wheii the country has needed our Army and N^avy, both 
arms of the military service have been equal to the demands made 
upon them. 



LOCATION AND AREA OF THE NATIONAL FOREST RESERVES IN 
THE UNITED STATES, ALASKA, AND PORTO RICO, JAN. 25, 1906. 

[From "The Forest Service."] 



State. Reserve. Area. Totals. 

Acres. 

Arizona Black Mesa 1,658,880 

do Prescott 423,680 

do Grand Canyon 2,307,520 

do San Francisco Mountains 1,975.310 

do Santa Rita 387,300 

do Santa Catalina 155,520 

do Mount Graham 118,600 

do Cbirlcahua 169,600 

do Pinal Mountains 45,760 

do Tonto 1,115,200 

8,357,370 



California Taboe^ 838,837 

do Stanislaus 627,780 

do Sierra 5,040,520 

do Santa Barbara 1,8-38,323 

do San Bernardino 737,120 

do San Gabriel 5.55,520 

do San Jacinto 668,160 

do Trabuco Canyon 109,920 

do AYarner Mountains 306,518 

do Modoc 288,218 

do Plumas 579,-520 

do Trinity 1,24.3,042 

do Klamath 1,896,313 

do Lassen Peak 897,115 

do Diamond Mountain 620,724 

do Shasta 1,377,126 

do Vuba 524,287 



18,155,043 



Colorado Battlement Mesa 797,720 

do Pike's Peak 1,681,667 

do White River 970,880 

do San Isabel 321,227 

do Gunnison 901,270 

do Leadville 1,219,947 

do Medicine Bow- 1,155,909 

do Sau Juan 1,437,406 

do Park Range 757,116 

do Wet Mountains 239,621 

do Cochetopah 1,133,330 

do Montezuma 570,719 



13 

Colorado Uncompabgre 478,111 

do Holy Cross 990,720 

do La SaP 29,502 



Idaho Bitter Root* 3,860,960 

do. Priest River' 541,160 

do Pocatello 49,920 

do Yellowstone" 177,960 

do Sawtooth 1,947,520 

do Weiser 324,964 

do Henry's Lake 798,720 

do Payette 1,460,960 

do Cassia 326,160 



12,691,145 



Kansas Garden City ' 97,280 



Montana Yellowstone'' 1,229,680 

do Bitter Root* 691,920 

do Gallatin 40,320 

do Lewis and ( 'lark 4,670,720 

do Madison 958,800 

do Little Belt 583,560 

do Highwood ^Mountains 45,080 

do Elkhorn 186,240 

do Hell Gate 1,481,280 

do Big Belt 630,260 



Nebraska Niobrara 123,779 

do Dismal River 85,123 



Nevada Tahoe^ 59,115 



New Mexico Gila 2,823,900 

do Pecos River 430,880 

do Lincoln 542,519 

do Portales 172,680 

do Jemez 1,237,205 



Oklahoma Ter . , Wichita 57,120 



Oregon Bull Run 142,080 

do Cascade Range 4,424,440 

do Ashland 18,560 

do Baker City 52,480 

do Wallowa 747,200 

do Wenaha ■ 413,250 

do Chesnimnus 220.320 

do Maury Mountain 54,220 



9,488,324 
97,280 



10,517.860 

208,902 
59,115 



5,207,184 
57,120 



6,072,550 



14 

South Dakota. . . Black Hills^ 1,103,320 

do Cave Hills 23,360 

do Slim Bnttes 58,160 

do Short Pine 19,040 



1,263,880 



Utah Fish Lake 288,800 

do Uinta" ' 2,218,216 

do Payson 167,280 

do Logan 182,080 

do Manti 777,920 

do Aquarius 639,000 

do Grautsvllle 68,960 

do Salt Lake 95,440 

do Sevier 710,920 

do Dixie . . •. 465,920 

do Beaver 261,593 

do La SaF 128,960 



6,005,089 



AN'ashiugton Priest River' 103,960 

do Mount Ranier 1,943,520 

do Olympic 1,466,880 

do Washington 3,952,840 

do Wenaha" 318,400 



7,785,000 



Wyoming Yellowstone" 6,580,920 

do Black Hills'* 46,440 

do Big Horn 1,151,680 

do Medicine Bow- 418,759 

do Uinta" 63,662 



8,261.431 

Total of 95 Forest Reserves in the United States 94,227,893 

Alaska Afognak 403,640 

do Alexander Archipelago 4,506,240 

— 4,909,880 

Porto Rico Luquillo 65,950 

65,950 

Grand total of 98 Forest Reserves 99,203,723 



'Total of Tahoe in California and Nevada : 897,952 acres. 

-Total of Medicine Bow in Colorado and Wyoming : 1,574,668 acres. 

"Total of La Sal in Colorado and Utah : 158,462 acres. 

n^otal of Bitter Root in Idaho and Montana : 4,552,880 acres. 

''Total of Priest River in Idaho and Washington : 645.120 acres. 

"Total of Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho : 7,988,560 acres. 

^Total of Wenaha in Oregon and Washington : 731,650 acres. 

*Total of Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming : 1,209,760 acres, 

"Total of Uinta in Utah and Wvoming : 2,281,848 acres. . 



II. 

THE RESERVE ACT OF 1891 AND THE EFFECT ON THE 
FORESTS OF THE EAST. 



As an introduction to this branch of the subject, so much of the 
letter addressed to President Roosevelt bv the writer as is pertinent 
is here inserted : 

'^During the j)ast year it was my privilege to take into view the his- 
tory of forestry in all European States and India. From a study of 
what has been done there, it became evident to me that successful 
forestry depends upon these two precedent conditions : 

"(a) Correct Forest Policy. 

"(b) Correct Forest Administration. 

"If the policy is wrong and the administration is faulty, the results 
are bound to be disappointing. A forest policy, to be correct, should 
embody these tAvo principles : 

"(1) It must be gauged to the kind of government. 

''(2) It must accord with the temper and occupations of the people. 
A forest administration will be a failure that is not both (1) efficient 
and (2) comprehensive. It must do all it does well, and know all 
tliat needs to'be done. 

"The ISTational Forest Policy of the United States comes conven- 
iently and is fairly w^ell divided into three periods : 

"(1) 1799-1870. 

"(2) 1870-1891. 

"(3) 1891-1906. 

"The first period shows merely that the Xational Government even 
that early recognized its authority in forest protection. The second 
period marks the beginning of public discussion of forestry topics 
emphasized in the Timber Culture Act (1873) and by the appropria- 
tion in 1870 of $2,000 for a forestal agency in the Department, of 
Agriculture. The third period w^as ushered in by the Reserve Act 
of 1891, giving the President authority to reserve from sale cer- 
tain kinds of public lands, to be retained as Federal domain for for- 
estry purposes. 

"All of the national attempts at any kind of forestry previously to 
1891 were failures, because the cardinal principles of correct forestry 
policy and administration were wanting. To this is to be added also 



16 

the further fact that during the early periods necessity had not de- 
veloped a sentiment and action strong enough to carry these initial 
movements forward. This brings us to the consideration of the 
period of 1891-190G, in which we now are, and the important ques- 
tion is : Are we repeating previous errors or following sound princi- 
ples under safe leaders ? 

"Erom those who hold the Reserve Act of 1891 as a great stride 
forward in forestry I am compelled to differ. The doubling of the 
price of lumber in the past decade, the slaughter going on in the East 
of all young prospective timber trees, the upsetting of our national 
forestry policy, the narrow and one-sided view of our forest adminis- 
tration — all these are, I charge, the natural fruits of the Reserve Act 
of 1891. If the Executive discretion permitted by the Act of 1891 
had been exercised with moderation, possibly the criticism I am now 
making would have not applied. From a true forestry standpoint 
there was no necessity of taking but three classes of land, namely, 
(1) mountain slopes so steep that reforestration is practically impos- 
sible artificially, as nature has perhaps been thousands of years in 
clothing them with a forest which ought never to be cut away under 
any circumstances ; (2) lands around bodies of water or other natural 
wonders that make the aesthetic values exceed the commercial; (3) 
lands with the finest specimens of Western forest species from which 
to gather seed for reforestration. If the selection had been held down 
within these limits it would have made no appreciable effect in the 
working of our land laws as they bad been going on for a hundred 
3^ears. On these lands thus reserved no cow, sheep, horse or goat 
should have been admitted for grazing purposes ; all hunting should 
have been forbidden, thus creating an asylum for the preservation of 
our wild animal and bird life. If this had been the case we should 
not see now foresters practically converted into cow-boys. 

"What is forestry, anyway ? Some one high in authority has defined 
forestry in the United States as "conservative lumbering." Applied 
to the Pacific Coast only, the definition would be correct. Eorestry 
in its truest and final analysis is the planting of a seedling in the place 
of every grown tree or other size felled for man's use, to be tended and 
protected until it in turn falls to a successor seedling. In the East, 
from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, Ocean, forestry is sylviculture, 
pure and simple. In this Eastern area just defined, so far as I know, 



17 

our active forest adiniiiistration is not sj^mdiiig' one dollar. The 
wliole appropriation of $900,000 passed bv the last CongToss is con- 
sumed in the live-stock and coAv-boy operations in the far West, be- 
yond the Mississippi River. Xow here in the East we scarcely have 
enough timber left for breakfast. If the present forest jiolicv is to 
be continned, Avill some one anthorized to speak tell us how and where 
we are to get dinner and snp])er 1 It will re(inire three good meals 
a day to keep ns alive and agoing. Since the time of the growth of a 
seedling into a timber tree covers a span of seventy-five years, even 
beginning now, it will be rather a long wait between meals. 

"I have referred to the price of lumber doubling in the last decade. 
Some one says that it is due to increased demand. Partly that is 
true. But lessening the supply has the same effect on the price of a 
conmiodity as increasing the demand. The sudden withdrawal of 
94,000,000 acres of land from the right of entry was a very sensitive 
lessening of the supply. The intention to proclaim still other Reserves 
is a perceptible factor of short supply also. Every owner of stura]iage 
in the United States has recognized this, and the better the timber 
the firmer it is held standing. 

"The Reserve Act of 1891, then, has created an hiatus in our 
national lumber development and progress. Previously to that, our 
wooden industries, as local su])plies were exhausted, removed to new 
sui)plies, this action resulting in periodical industrial migrations 
westward. But the giving out of a timber-land supply in the AVest 
has kept these industries at home, and in order to live they have 
entirely changed their methods in order that they might utilize the 
second growth of the forest here in the East. Results published, in 
the last census are very convincing on this point. Out of the total 
number of minor wood-manufacturing ])lnnts, it was found that 
one-fourth of these were established in the census year 1899, thus 
indicating a rapid change in business to meet new conditions. Of all 
these new industries, sixty-two per cent, were private individuals, 
thirty-one per cent, were firms, and only seven ])ev cent, were corpora- 
tions. The result of this new class of operators shows itself very 
plainly in the woods. All the growing young timber is being cut 
before the manhood stage is reached, and even' every trout brook is 
being stripped of its cover in the keen search for stock. 

2 



18 

"So, figuring it as best we can, the East is facing a s])an of vears 
without a home sujiply of timber, apparently ignored by our forest 
policy. But our National Government has plenty of money to experi- 
ment on alkali deserts and dry limestone mountainsides of tlie far 
West. Experiments are justified only in search of something needed 
and not in visible existence. .Vll the Appalachian Range, the Pied- 
mont Plateau, the Coastal Plain, the southwestern Mississippi Valley 
are the finest forest lands in the world. To neglect these certainties 
for experiments seems as unAvise as starting a cotton plantation in the 
Adirondacks when thousands of acres of known cotton lands could ho 
secured in the Southern States. It is almost a maxim that old coun- 
tries olfer legitimate fields for forestry, and that new countries, like 
the far West, are for exploitation. 

"There is a ])olitical and economic dogma abroad in the laud rluil 
gwernmental ownership and operation should take the place of pri- 
vate, because the people could get supplied cheaper. The ])resent 
forest policy reverses this. It is that the government should sell its 
timber in such a way as to make lumber higher.* But higher lum- 
ber, when proi)erly translated, means fewer homes. The safety and 
prosperity of the Republic, it has been well said, can be measureil by 
the proportion of home-owTiers to the whole population. 

"Destructive criticism is always easiest. To build up is more ditH- 
cult. First of all, then, do away with the live-stock and cow-boy part 
of the Western undertakings and leave that business to individual 
American enter])rise. Reduce the forces and curtail the expenses out 
there. Transfer the surj^lus foresters and funds to the East. Every 
State in the East needs a United States Forester of high order 
attached to its administrative staff. Let it be the duty of this Forester 
to do everything that, ought to be done, to start his State in a sane 
forest policy. lu (»ur State governments, with their comparatively 
feeble executive and administrative initiative, working alone in this 
way will take any given State twenty-five years to establish a correct 
forest policy and administration. For example, take Xew Hamp- 
shire, with which I am familiar. That State, since 1893, or in thir- 



*" Study the change of prices in wood; they are sure signs of the conditions of supply and 
demand. It is perhaps not possible to draw valid conclusions from one statistical item; but if we 
find that the price of white pine uppers during the thirty years from 1S70 to 1900 advanced 50 per 
cent., and in the three years following advanced 56 per cent., we do not need fine discrimination in 
order to realize that the end of this class of supply is near. Similarly, all other woods have during 
the last fifteen years appreciated between 50 and 100 per cent."— Dr. B. E. Fernow. 



19 

teen years, has spent $18,000 in attempts at forestry, and out of that 
expenditure the State has not an acre of land or a single seedling 
planted to show for it. With a Forester there to advise and direct, 
this conld not have happened. Any Forester who failed to bring his 
State into action would need rotation, to say the least. It is scarcely 
possible that a single State would refuse a United States Forester 
offered free of charge. This would be cooperative work that is needed 
in every State ])ressingly, without delay, for forestry methods can 
only succeed in this country when the local jieople are led on to ap- 
proval. Down South, where I was born and grew u]), we were accus- 
tomed to b\dl-wliip our slaves into doing what we wanted, wliether 
tliey liked it or not. That regime has passed away, never to be re- 
vived. The American people will not be bull-wlii])]>ed into a kind of 
forestr}^ they don't want. 

"Sooner or later we shall have to remodel from to]) to bottom our 
forest administration, making it comprehensive enough for the great 
area and many different peoples that have to be dealt with. The 
forest problems of the United States are not a one-man proposition. 
They are beyond the ken of any one man to master and solve. Even 
in the smaller States of Europe the necessity of the division of respon- 
sibility in the forest administration is recognized. France, as many 
contend, has shown the greatest capacity in the managing of forestal 
property, and, financially speaking, France makes the best exhibit of 
a credit balance in forestry. From the experience of France and of 
Great Britain in India, probably we can learn most that we can 
utilize for administrative reform. Following somewhat after their 
model, we should have a board of at least seven forest conservators ; 
six should come, one each, from the six forest zones into which the 
United States can be divided: (1) Pacific Coast, (2) Rocky Moun- 
tain States, (3) Lake States, (4) :N"orth Atlantic States, (5) South 
Atlantic and Gulf States, (6) Middle Western States. This division 
no one maintains is correct, botanically, but it is as nearly correct as 
our political units permit. The seventh conservator should be the 
Secretary of Agriculture ex officio, and he should be |)resident of the 
board. This board should have a resident secretary in Washington 
and meet there as often as necessary — certainly twice a year — to 
authorize all moneys that are to be expended and to approve or dis- 
approve all plans of the United States Forester. The members should 



20 

be appointed in pairs for two, four and six years, respectively, for 
their first terms, and after that for six years as each term expires. 
This would give an immortal body to keep alive a rational forest 
policy. Made np of snch members from all sections of the country, 
this board would undoubtedly command the ]mblic confidence, and all 
of its decisions and acts would be accepted as final. If any one criti- 
cises this plan as too cumbersome and expensive, let it be compared 
with the same administration in India, which consists of nineteen 
conservators, one hundred and twenty-two deputy conservators, one 
hundred and seventy assistant conservators, with a field and protective 
force under them of ten thousand men. 

"Further to j)opularize forestry in the United States, all appoint- 
ments to the Forest Service should come from each of these six forest 
zones in proportion to the population of each zone. It goes without 
saying that a man born and reared in a ])articular section gets in 
closer touch with the flora and fauna, with the forest and its denizens, 
than some chance importation. But,* most of all, he M-ould under- 
stand the temper of the people — how to give them what they should 
receive and how to keep from them what they ought not to have with- 
out exciting opposition. With a forest administration and a forest 
service established on the basis of this outline, failure in forestry 
would belong only to tlie ]iast history of the United States. 

"With a board of administration such as this, it is not believed that 
the pressing forestry problems here in the East would lie untouched. 
As a specimen of one of these, look at what is taking place in the 
South Atlantic coastal plain. From N^orfolk, Va., to southern Texas 
the long-leaf pine, associated with other species, forms what was once 
an unbroken belt of timber, extending at some points more than a 
hundred miles into the interior. It has been under the shelter of this 
belt of timber that truck farming over the entire area skirting the 
coast from Virginia to Texas has been carried on so successfully. 
Probably not less than a million people are engaged there in this 
industry and producing food products sufiicient for five million ]ieo- 
ple, chiefly in the great cities in the Northeast. The stimulus for high 
prices for lumber, largely induced by governmental action in the 
West, has made this belt in recent years the point of attack of the 
great lumber kings who captured and subdued the Lake States. 
This belt of timber is now being felled and sawed at the rate of 



21 



300,000,000 board feet per montli, according to the returns of tlie 
Yellow Pine Association for 1905 ; that is to say, at the rate of 
3,600,000,000 feet per annum, or, in the terms of tree units, 
7,200,000 trees per annum. At this rate of consumption, within 
twenty-five years at the longest, this belt of timber will entirely dis- 
appear, for neither any State nor the nation is planting one seedling to 
take the place of the 7,200,000 trees that are felled annually. ]S"ow 
this belt of timber standing, as a physiographic feature, competes 
sharply with its commercial value sawn into lumber. It retains and 
dissipates backwards the heat of the warm winds from the Gulf, and, 
on the other hand, it parries the shock of the cold winds from the 
Xorth, thus furnishing the ideal trucking region. In a few years 
these conditions will be changed, truck farming will be belated and 
hazardous from uncertain frost to bankruptcy. And yet our national 
forest policy can only find occupation in the far -West! 

"The very great importance of the subject, Mr. President, is the 
only excuse I have to offer in asking for enough of your valuable time 
to run over these suggestions ; for it is known to you that the industry 
of wood products is the fourth" in the United States in annual value, 
amounting in the last census year to $1,031,000,000, and that of the 
total gToss earnings ($1,900,000,000) of our railroads in 1904, 10 
per cent, of this revenue- was derived from transportation of forest 
products." 

In treating of the topics touched upon in the letter with more 
detail, it will be well first to point out the differences between a park 
and a reserve. A park, as, for example^ the YelloAvstone Park, is 
established by a special act of CongTess. A reserve is simply pro- 
claimed by the President under authority of the Reserve Act of 1891, 
and can only be created out of the public lands which have not yet 
been taken up under an}' of the laws of entry still in force. Again, 



*THE FOUR LEADING INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



(1) Food products 

(2) Iron and steel- 

(3) Textile 

(4) Lumber 



No. Estab- 
lishments. 


No. 
Laborers. 


61,300 


314,000 


14,000 


734,000 


30,000 


1,030,000 


47,000 


547,000 



Wages. 



Capital. 



$ 130,000,000 $ 941,000,000 

382,000,000 1,529,000,000 

342,000,000 I 1,367,000,000 

212,000,000 I 946,000,000 



Product. 

2,278,000,000 
1,793,000,000 
1,637.000,000 
1,031,000,000 



2.2 

a park may be created out of public lands, or private lands may be 
bought by the government for this purpose. ^V further distinction 
exists in the fact that reserves are set aside primarily for forestry 
purposes, whereas with a park that may be only one of the considera- 
tions leading to its establishment. The preservation of natural 
scenery of national importance may be the controlling influence for a 
])ark. What the people of the East are asking for, therefore, are 
parks — the White ]\Iountain Park in Xew England and the Appa- 
lachian Park in the Southern States. They are wanted for forestry 
purposes, for natural scenery purposes, and, most of all, for the con- 
servation and protection of water-sheds. 

In regard to the Reserve Act itself, but little can be said in its 
favor, or of the methods by which it was passed. Onlj^ by courtesy 
can it be caNed an Act. It consists of a few lines engrafted on an 
ajipropriation l)il] in tlie expiring hours of Congress. Very few knew 
it was there, or what it really meant. That class of legislation has 
been very a])tly styled "pickpocket" legislation, for something is done 
unawares. What has been attempted under the Reserve Act is, by far, 
the most considerable eifort at forestry in the Fnited States. As will 
be seen from the tabulation on another page, there are in the United 
States and Territories ninety-five reserves of a combined area of 
1)4,227, 893 acres. In Alaska there are tAvo reserves of 4,009,880 acres, 
and in Porto Rico one reserve of 65,950 acres. How much of this 
area is woodland and forest and how much is grazing and agricultural 
land no one seems to know; for in the beginning of our reserve policy 
very little attention was paid to the kind of land taken, the object be-~ 
ing to get about everything in sight. U])on investigation it will be 
seen that with the exception of four small reserves, one each in Okla- 
homa and Kansas, two in ISTebraska, all the others are located in the 
Rocky ]\I(»unt;uu States, on the Pacific slope or in the Territories of 
Arizona and Xcw Mexico. At the time, and since, there has been 
much opposition in some of these States to the large amount of lands 
that have been reserved. This opposition is far more reasonable than 
the people of the East think. It has a basis both in law and justice. 
When these States were admitted into the Union it was supposed that 
tlie Federal domain within their limits would be snliject to entry the 
same as had liccii the })ractiee in predecessor States. All investments. 



23 

all individual and pnblic improvements, were based on this assump- 
tion. To come after that and deprive those States, some of them of 
ahnost one-fonrth their area, simply lessens the possibilities of State 
growth and individual wealth and prosperity to that extent. Whether 
the law, if tested in the Supreme Court, would be upheld, remains still 
unknown. Besides, what is there to prevent any succeeding President 
from restoring all these lands to entry lands again if he shoidd be so 
inclined ''. .Vs the increase of population in these States requires more 
land, will not that very demand be' made upon the President? In 
view of such contingencies, is it a wise policy to expend all the for- 
estr}' a})pro])riation on these Reserves and leave the rest of the country 
uncared for '{ 

But let us suppose the Reserves are maintained and increased, to 
Avhat extent will they meet the requirement for timber and wood in 
the United States 'i Our Federal domain exclusive of Alaska 
amounted to 1,500,000,000 acres in round numbers. Of this amount 
the United States Government still owns (577,000,000 acres. This 
area uiay be subdivided into — 

(Jrazing land 3,32,000,000 acres. 

Wooaiaiitl 184,000,000 acres. 

Deserts 70,000,000 acres. 

Indian 80,000,000 acres. 

IMiscellaneous 11,000,000 acres. 

According to the latest bulletin of the Forest Service, already there 
have been set aside of the woodland for reserves 94,227,893 acres. 
AVhen the whole 184,000,000 acres of woodland have been reserved, 
how far will that supply us in timber and Avood % The lumber con- 
sumption of the United States is estimated at 45,000,000,000 feet 
b. m. annually. An acre of woodland will give an annual increment 
of 90 feet b. m. Therefore 184,000,000 acres would yield annually 
only 16,560,000,000 feet b. m., or a little more than one-third of the 
consumption to-day. But it is th(> future that we must provide for. 
An hundred years hence, when our ]iopulation has doubled and 
trebled, our ])resent national forest policy will scarcely yield fire- 
wood enough. Fortunately, however, all the woodland is not owned 
by the government. The total estimate of woodland in the United 
States is 700,000,000 acres. The government, as we have said, owns 
about 36 per cent, of the woodlands of the country, 30 per cent, are 



24 

attached to farms and the remaining 34 per cent, are controlled by 
lumbermen, railroads, and other corporations. But it is highly 
probable that not over half of this woodland is in a productive state. 
Much of it is in a stationary stage, where the death-rate equals the 
new growth, and much of it is cut-over land. So, actually, we are most 
likely now living oft" our principal instead of our interest and are daily 
approaching the end of that principal. What is to be done '( Where 
is the remedy ? The present United States Forester has deiined for- 
estry in the United States as "conservative lumbering," and since we 
must accept that as his prescription, let us see if we can find the merits 
of this cure-all. Conservative lumbering is opposed to destructive 
lumbering. It is lumbering with a due regard to the young gTowth 
and regeneration. It is also periodic lumbering: Cutting now the 
trees of a certain diameter and twenty years hence, or whatever period 
may be adopted, cutting the trees that have reached the original 
diameter, and repeating the operation ad infinitiun. In the first 
jilace, it is lumbering, and lumbering presupposes the existence of a 
forest. If we had started out this way, or even fifty years ago made 
the beginning, the theory might have worked ; that is, met the situa- 
tion, if it is practical. It is too late now. Our existing forest area, 
if properly stocked and managed, would not yield a supply equal to 
the demand. In the second place, is the theory practical ? It is a fine 
j)hrase ; looks well on paper and sounds well when written. But 
take it into the woods, to a lumberman, and rattle it off. What will 
be the result ? He will invite you to go away back and sit down on a 
log by the river and spend your time fishing. The lumberman, like 
everyone else engaged in a gainful occupation, wants the last dollar 
that he can get oft' the area noic. He knows that financially forestry 
means the curtailment of present revenue for the sake of future reve- 
nue. The lumberman also knows that "conservative lumbering" is 
impractical in ''soft" growth, in coniferous growth — pines, hemlock, 
cedar, firs, larch, and spruce. lie knows that when a diameter- 
cutting is made in coniferous forest that in the next year or two the 
wind will cut the balance, because they are all fiat-footed species, that 
is, have no ta])-root, and can only withstand the wind so long as each 
one remains to help the other. Therefore the lumberman in conifer- 
ous gi'owth makes a "clean cutting," converting the large diameter 
into lumber and selling the small diameter for i)ulp-wood to the paper 
mills. 



25 

So far we have investigated the merits of "conservative lumbering" 
in conifers. With the broad-leaved species the conditions are more 
favorable to conservative Inmbering. The broad-leaved species are 
tap-rooted, and each individual can stand by himself, if necessary. 
"Conservative lumbering" is practical so far as the requirements of 
tlie broad-leaved forest are concerned, but the increased cost of that 
method of lumbering militates against its introduction. In addition 
to this objection the area of the broad-leaved forests is so small that 
"conservative lumbering" there would have little effect in keeping 
supply up to consumption — .the goal that forestry must aim for and 
attain if it is to have public approval. This leads us to a view of the 
forest area in the United States. A few years back Dr. B. E. Fer- 
now made this estimate of the standing timber in the United States: 

Southern States 700,000,000,000 ft. h. m. 

Northern States .jOO,000,000,000 ft. h. ui. 

Pacific Coast 1,000,000,000,000 ft. b. m. 

Rocky Mountain States 100,000.000,000 ft. b. m. 

Total 2,300,000,000,000 ft. b. m. 

How much of this is broad-leaved and how much is coniferous tim- 
ber we cannot determine accurately. AVe do know, however, that there 
are no broad-leaved forests in the Rocky Mountain States and on the 
Pacific Coast. What broad-leaved forests are here are the remnants 
of what were once the grandest hardwood forests of the world, in the 
Southern and the jSTorthern States. The hardwood forests have had 
to resist the force of civilization and the force of vandal destruction 
besides. Occupying a deep rich soil, as compared to the thin soil of 
the coniferous, our hardwood species have been cut down and burned 
into ashes to increase the acreage of agriculture. In the last census 
year the lumber from conifers amounted to 26,150,000,000 feet b. m., 
and from hardwoods 8,630,000,000 feet b. m. Taking these figures 
as a guide, the hardwood area is scarcely one-third that of the coni- 
fers. This is misleading, for the largest area of conifers, the Pacific 
coast, yielded that year only 9.6 of the total cut. So we are safe in 
saying that the hardw^ood area in the United States, as compared' to 
the coniferous, is about as 25 to 75. From the point of view of the 
writer, therefore, we have .seen that "conservative lumbering" in 
coniferous forests is impractical because of natural obstacles, and in 
hardwood forests, which constitute anyway only 25 per cent, of the 



26 

forest area of the country, it will not be introduced on account of the 
increased cost of that nietliod of lumbering. Xo one lumberman, 
looking out for financial gains, will add to his cost of production un- 
less all his competitors do the same. 

Before leaving this part of the subject, 1 wish to ([uote some statis- 
tics on supply and demand from Mr. K. A. Long, a very prominent 
lumberman of the West. His figures do not embrace the United 
States, as he has chosen those States and sections where the main sup- 
ply of conifers stands. For the yellow-pine belt of the South and 
Southwest this is his estimate by States: 

Florida l(),."iOO.(;MlO.OOO ft. b. m. 

Mississippi 4G.0, 0,000,000 ft. b. in. 

Alabama 11,250,000,000 ft. b. in. 

(ieoi-gia 12.000.000.000 ft. b. in. 

Arkansas 1 0.500.000,000 ft. b. in. 

Missouri 2,00(».(t(l0.000 ft. b. in. 

Texas .".u.ooo.ooo.ooo ft. b. m. 

Louisiana 45,000.000.000 ft. b. in. 

North ("arnlina anil Viriiinia 15,000,o; 10,000 ft. b. in. 

South ( "ai-olina 5.000,000,000 ft. b. m. 

Total 187,250,000,000 ft. b. m. 

The annual cut in this belt is now about U,569,21-l:,000 feet b. ni.. 
showing that the supply will be exhausted in less than twenty years. 
For the white-pine btdt of the Lake States the estimate is: 

Wisconsin '. . 13,000 000.000 ft. b. m. 

Michigan 17,000.000,000 ft. b. m. 

Minnesota ;W.OOO.OOO,000 ft. b. m. 

l\)tal 60,000.000.000 ft. b. ni. 

At the rate of cut in 1890, namely, 5,419,333,000 feet b. m., the 
supply would be exhausted in eleven years. 

On the Pacific Slope the estimate for Washington is 175,000,- 
000,000 feet b. m., divided into s]iccies as follows: 

Ked Fir 00,59;^.000.(IOO ft. b. m. 

Spruce 8.221.0(10.000 ft. b. m. 

("edar 22.(i40,(M)0.(MlO ft. b. m. 

Hemlock 41,571.000.00(1 ft. b. m. 

Yellow Pine 1.3,082.000,000 ft. b. m. 

Oregon has about 250,000,000,000 feet b. m., of which 170,000.- 
000,000 feet are red fir and 50,000,000,000 feet yellow pin(^, the rest 
being divided into spruce, hemlock and cedar. 



In California there are standing abont 150,000,000,000 feet 1j. ni. 
With the excejjtion of a small anionnt of sugar pine, California's 
stock is abont equally divided bet^veen redwood and yellow pine. 

Adding together the amount standing in the three sections exam- 
ined, we find the total stand of conifers is 842,000,000,000 feet 1). ni., 
and the total annual cut is 20,600,000,000. This would make the 
life of the supply, at the present rate of consumption, forty-cnie years. 
But when we take into the account that our population is increasing 
at the rate of 3 per cent, per annum — 2,500,000 people — and that 
the increase in consumption per ca})ita per annum is 10 per cent., the 
calculated life of forty-one years is quite too much. 

If to the estimate above is added about 25,000,000,000 feet b. m. of 
white pine, spruce, and hemlock in New York, Pennsylvania, and the 
JN^ew England States, we should get still nearer to our total supply. 
N^or is there to the north of us, in the Dominion of Canada, so much 
forest wealth as one might think, as their tntnl wliite ])ine standing is 
only about 37,000,000,000 fett b. m. 

To meet the situation which these figures portend we have seen that 
the remedy of the present United States Forester is "conservative 
lumbering." As a part of this scheme the lumbermen of the Ignited 
States are asked to found a chair of lumbering in one of the forest 
schools. That is to be a sort of Sunday-school where the Inmbermen 
are to learn and teach the altruism of money -getting ! 

So far as the writer can judge, what is proposed by the United 
States Forester to solve the problem of keeping our forest supply ade- 
quate to the consumption would be just as effectual as a ])oy with a 
squirt-gun trying to save a great city in conflagration. Xor will the 
forest-fire laws, both for the protection of timber and seedlings — as 
much as that would help — do all that is needed. 

AVhat we shall have to come to and ado])t is what other nations 
have found indispensable. We shall have to enact a national law of 
Compulsory Reforestration. This would bear equally on all owners 
of woodland, whether in large or small tracts. It would ajqdy ecpially 
to all sections of the country and produce a uniform forest develop- 
ment; it would make State forestry possible and practicable — some- 
thing that we shall have to do if a real forestry movement is to suc- 
ceed. 

Let us take as a Avorking basis that the cost of reforestration ]X'r 
acre is $10. Whoever sells the wood or timber from his land, pro- 



28 

vided it is not to be converted into agricultural land, has only to add 
the $10 per acre for reforestration to the price. Who would do the 
reforestration i* The State, and the A'ational ■Governnient also. Such 
a general law by the government would lead all the States to enact 
similar laws, covering the points for each State that a national law 
could not reach. To reforest and care for the young growth would 
necessitate a forest administration in every State. By degrees, 
with such assistance as the ]Srational Government had to offer, a 
rational and safe State forest policy would in this way be worked 
out, and our forestry development would go along in harmony ^vith 
our theory and system of government. 

AVhat the government is trying to do to-day does not fit in with our 
institutions and the customs of our people. We are a nation of indi- 
\i(huils, and so long as we retain our individual initiative, so long 
shall we continue to be a great, free, and prosperous people. The 
selling of wood and timber is not one of our governmental functions. 
If Ave have undertaken it, we have followed to that extent bad advice. 
Elsewhere I have referred to the results of the present forest policy 
of the government. While saving one tree in the far A^"est, we have 
by that action caused the destruction of two young trees in the East, 
Avhereas, if there had been no governmental interference with our 
law of development as it had been going on for a hundred years, the 
two young trees in the East would have been left to ripen, and the old 
tree of the far West would have been taken in its place. If this 
policy is continued, the East will find itself in less than twenty-five 
years dependent upon lumber for its homes to come from the far, 
AVest. Is this a pleasant situation to contemplate, with a coal famine 
and railroad strike at the same time ? What answer will our great 
captains of industry east of the Mississippi Iviver make ? Does a 
forest policy with such an outcome meet the wishes of the Illinois 
Central Railroad, the Louisville and Xashville, the Southern Pacific, 
the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, the Pennsylvania, the New 
York Central, the Missouri and Texas Pacific, the New York, 
New Haven and Hartford, and the Boston and IMaine ? Will the 
Senators and Representatives in Congress east of the Mississi])pi and 
from Missouri soutliAvard continue to vote appropriations for a 
forest policy, the logic of which makes their constituents homeless 
and fireless ? What say the people of the Middle West to buying 
their future supplies from a Pacific Coast luml)er trust, promoted 



29 

by the misguided action of their own government? Heretofore the 
Middle West has been protected, in that it could draw on the Atlantic 
Seaboard, the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River for lumber, and 
it is to their interest that all these sources should be kept open and 
alive. 

As to a trust. When the government offers its timber on the 
reserves for sale by auction, who will be the buyers ? IS'o one can 
aiford to, except the lumbermen of that section, and it is easy to 
see that they will control the government's output, i^ow, since the 
government began the reserve policy there has been a grab policy of 
the timber dealers all over the United States. The individual owner 
of timber-land is fast going, and in ten years he will have entirely 
disappeared. The timber of the United States will be held in a very 
few hands. It is for these few that the Reserve timber is unwittingly 
being held also, for they will take charge of every sale that is made. 

To return to Compulsory Reforestration. Some say it cannot be 
done, on account of the Constitution. It would seem that the ''welfare 
clause" in the Constitution ought to come in here. Then, too, we have 
a i^ational Bank KcX that applies all over the country, in each and 
every State. Why- not a Forest Act? But can we not legislate for 
our own interests to the same extent that we have legislated for the 
Philippine Islands? In the "Forest Act" for the Philippines, re- 
forestration is very clearly provided for. 

It has been stated that forestry interests in the United States are too 
manifold and vast in extent to be entrusted to a single head ; that it 
would be better if the policies of older countries were followed in di- 
viding the responsibility and making a more comprehensive adminis- 
tration. Plow one man takes in the whole situation may be gathered 
from a review of the "Forester." This is the official annual publica- 
tion of the United States Forester, and is supposed to tell wdiat was 
done the past year. The "Forester" is continuous, that is, the pages are 
consecutively numbered from year to year. The "Forester" for 1905 
fills in the pages from 199 to 237. The future historian of forestry 
for our period would turn first of all to the pages of the "Forester" for 
his information. That is the official organ, and should contain what 
was wanted. In the "Forester" of 1905 what do we find ? First of 
all, the names of but two persons appear in or on its pages, one Secre- 
tary Wilson and the other the United States Forester. So far as this 
published record shows, these are the only two names connected with 



30 

forestry, and one of them, Secretary Wilson, is a well-known farmer. 
Elsewhere I have given the total nnmber of the Forestry Service as 
532. Have none of these men done anything of special excellence to 
win a place in the '"Forester" ( Ought not the public to know who 
are at the head of all the "offices" under which the Forest Service 
works '( ^^'hy not print a roster of all the men in the higher grades 
of the service 'i Let the public know who they are and what they are 
doing. The demand to-day is for publicity, and nowhere is it needed 
more than in all departments at Washington. 

Again, why not give us in detail the organization of at least one 
of the Reserves^ How many men are required, their general grades 
and remuneration, and the total annual outlay on the Reserve ? Be- 
side this put the income from the Reserve. In that way the people 
Avho have to pay the bills could see for what they are paying. After 
reading through the "Forester" for 1905, I find these several geiici-al 
statements of the expenditure under the Forest Service : 

Office of Dendrology $ 15,086.44 

Office of Mensureiiieiits .30.158.99 

Office of Extension .>3.970.9(! 

Office of Products 56,881.22 

Office of Records 90,881.98 

Office of Forester 121,078.16 

Preceding each of these financial statements is a very general sum- 
mary of the uses to which the moneys were applied. As far as I can 
nnd<e out, about two-thirds of the whole expenditure, that of Records 
and Forester, were devoted to the literary bureau, which apparently 
is always ready to attack anybody who is bold enough to criticise the 
United States Forester's acts and the public conduct of his office. But 
the statements are so mixed up it would be impossible from reading 
the "Forester" to say under wdiich account a given expenditure falls. 

There is no little said in the "Forester" about cooperative work with 
individuals, corporations and States. Xew Hampshire, for example, 
has cooperated with the Forest Service to the extent of $7,000. For 
this the State has received copies of a small volume, with maps on 
forest conditions in the northern part of the State, and a study of the 
growth of white pine and, perhaps, some other species are to be added. 
With this information in hand ]^ew Hampshire will lead all the 
States in forestry ! Xow, I am not criticising the scientific correct- 
ness of the M'ork done or the men Avho did it ; but T do sav that it was 



31 

largely a case of wtVdirection by an all-wise single head. What Xew 
Hampshire needed was a demonstration of lyractical forestry princi- 
ples. These are (1) the gathering and saving of forest-tree seeds, 
(2) making seed-beds and care of nurseries, (3) reforestration of old 
fields and cut-over lands, (4) lumbering under the most difficult con- 
ditions, either in spruce and cypress swamps or on the steepest moun- 
tain slopes. If this kind of work had been carried on for a number 
of years, the people would have come to know what forestry is and the 
State would have had an asset for its $7,000. As it has been done, 
the State might just as well have voted to put $7,000 in gold in a bag 
and dropped it in the middle of Lake Winni])esaukee, and then looked 
for a grove of water-oaks to spring up, bearing a yearly crop of golden 
acorns. But why go to the trouble of criticism ? Nobody ivorlis hut 
the United States Forester. 



FEDERAL FOREST LAWS AND OTHER LAWS THAT HAVE AFFECTED 
FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



1799. 

Congress appropriated .$200,000 for the piirchase of naval timber lands on the 
islands off the coast of Georgia. 

1817. 
Congress anthorized the President to reserve live-oak and cedar lands in the 
Louisiana Purchase. 

1831. 
Congress passes act to punish persons "cutting or destroying live-oak, red ceilnr 
or other trees growing over the United States." 

1850. 
-» The Swamp Land Law. 

1867. 
The Homestead Law. 

1873. 

The Timber Culture Act. 

1877. 
The Desert Land Act. 

1878. 

The Timber and Stone Act. 

1891. 

The Forest Reserve Act. 

1902. 
The Irrigation Law. 

1905. 
The Transfer Act. 



THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND FORESTRY. 

One of the common beliefs about forests is that they cause rain 
and make rivers. The oj^posite is true. Forests are the result of 
rain, rivers and other bodies of water. But without wind the influ- 
ence of waters would be lessened greatly in the spread of forests. The 
magnificent forests that once stood on so much of our land were due, 
in the first instance, to our continental construction and location. 
On either side is a great ocean and to the south the Gulf of Mexico ; 
stretching across the northern interior is a chain of lakes equal to an 
inland sea ; upon either coast north and south runs a chain of moun- 
tains, the Appalachians on the Atlantic side and the Coast Range, 
the Sierras, Cascades and Rocky Mountains on the Pacific side. ]!^ow 
comes the wind into play. Laden with moisture from the oceans the 
wind starts up the mountains and ascends till a cooler stratum of 
atmosphere is reached, when condensation takes place and the rain 
falls, giving to the soil the required moisture for forest generation 
and growth. Precipitation, therefore, is due rather to elevation and 
not to forests. But to the winds we must give credit for the extent 
of our forests and perhaps, also, for their diversity ; because here in 
a windy country we have about five hundred species against thirty 
or less in Europe of the same latitude. 

The rivers in the United States may be classed geologically into 
two groups — Topography Rivers and Glacier Rivers. This classifi- 
cation is made with the reservation that all rivers were originally the 
result of topography. But the influence of the Glaciers in that recent 
geological period when all the northern part of ISTorth America was 
covered with an ice-sheet of mountain-thickness, was doubtless so 
gi'cat as literally to wipe out numerous rivers and so to change and 
divert the courses of others that the direction given to them by topog- 
raphy in the beginning cannot now be identified very accurately. As 
the southward movement of the Glaciers is defined, generally speak- 
ing, by the Ohio River, this places the Mississippi alone of the rivers 
flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic in both of the groups. 
To the student in search of its life-history, the central trunk of the 
Mississippi, which rises in Lake Itasca, is of less interest than the 
main branch source, the yet undiscovered head-waters of the Missouri. 
*"The waters forming the Missouri are supplied in part by the hot 



*Prof. I. C. Russell, in Rivers of North America. 

3 



34 

springs and wonderfnl geysers of the Yellowstone Park, and in part 
by snow-banks and small glaciers in the more elevated valleys, and 
amphitheatre of the Rocky Mountains, in Idaho and Montana. 
To a small extent the waters of the great river come from Canadian 
territory. The countless lakes of Minnesota and Wisconsin extend 
like leaves on the terminal twigs of the central trunk. The head- 
waters of the Ohio, the largest branch of the Mississippi wdiich joins 
it from the east, rise on the western slope of the Appalachian up- 
lift in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. A small portion of south- 
western jSTew York is also included in the Ohio drainage basin. 
The distance in a straight line from the head-waters of the Ohio 
nor thAvest ward to the source of the Missouri is over 1,S00 miles. 
From the mouth of the Mississippi along its general course to the 
continental divide, which limits the drainage on the northwest, is 
about 2,500 miles, but including all the windings of the river, the 
actual distance that the water falling on the mountains of Montana 
has to travel in order to reach the sea is more than 4,000 miles. 
The entire area drained by the "Father of Waters" is about 1,240,000 
square miles, or nearly one-third of the United States, exclusive of 
Alaska." 

A river may be called a body of water in unstable equilibrium 
because its descent is down an inclined plane. In other words, 
a river is a natural canal of a tortuous course and varying gradi- 
ent through wdiicli is oifered a passageway to its outlet in lake, 
gulf, sea or ocean, for all the water that falls within its drainage 
basin. If water alone, however, were carried there would be scant 
reason for this discussion.' During certain stages of its existence, a 
river transports in suspension and rolls along on its bottom vast 
quantities of material that are brought into its channel in obedience 
to the laws of mechanical and chemical degradation of the earth's 
surface. Thanks to the studies and experiments made by the War 
Department, our information on these points about the Mississippi 
is very full. According to the figures and measurements of the gov- 
ernment experts, the Mississippi transports annually silt in suspen- 
sion that ''would occupy 6,718,694,400 cubic feet, or sufficient to 
cover one square mile to the depth of 241 feet." The amount of 
sand and gTavel rolled along the bottom at the same time is estimated 
to be 750,000,000 cubic feet, thus reaching the total annual burden 
of "7,468,694,400 cubic feet, or sufficient to cover one square mile to 



35 

a depth of 268 feet." All of this burden is to be classed under the 
general head of mechanical degradation. In addition to this, it has 
been found that the Mississippi carries yearly in solution mineral 
matter to the amount of 112,832,171 tons. This belongs under the 
head of chemical degradation. Now, these computations and deduc- 
tions are of very great value to us in two directions : In the first place, 
the presence of vegetation on a given area of the earth's surface 
accelerates chemical corrasion there. The rain-waters that fall upon 
a surface of vegetation and percolate into the earth get therefrom 
organic acids, principally humus acids, which greatly increase their 
solvent power and enable them to take with them subterranean min- 
erals in solution into the receiving river. On the other hand, the 
presence of vegetation retards mechanical corrasion in that it weak- 
ens the force with which raindrops hit the earth, filters the water 
of such debris as may have been caught up and decreases its rate of 
flow by the obstacles the water has to overcome. But the capacity of 
chemical corrasion, which in its resultant form could more properly be 
termed chemical slirinkage than degradation, is less by 600 per cent, 
than that of mechanical corrasion. Therefore, as a check on the degra- 
dation of the earth's surface, vegetation, or forestry, with its litter of 
twigs, branches, and leaves, is a conservative influence. 

The second direction of the value of these conclusions is that all our 
rivers, to a greater or less extent, are duplicating the work of the Mis- 
sissippi. The chief end and aim of a river's life-work, it has been said, 
is to corrade its basin to base level. Why so few rivers complete their 
life-task is because the time required is so long that some climatic 
change or secular movement of the earth's crust intervenes, upsets all 
calculated plans, and the work has to be begun over again with a new 
base level. With the last phenomenon forestry does not deal, except 
that forests have been subjected themselves to such influences. The 
Glaciers were more drastic in their effect on our forests than rivers, 
perhaps. Species and whole geneVa were no doubt destroyed and the 
range of many of our present species limited to new areas. For exam- 
ple, persimmon, a species whose range is largely confined now to our 
Southern States, has been found embedded in Greenland ; and there 
are other similar cases. But on our two groups of rivers, the Glacier 
River and the Topography River, forests have quite difl^erent effects. 
And the rivers in turn make quite different demands. The beautiful 
cascades and waterfalls so characteristic of the Glacier rivers are 



36 

souvenirs of the Glaciers themselves, the debris left by the powerful 
energy exerted when the Glaciers melted away. The soil also bears 
the imj)rint of its maker. Glaciated soil is only another name for 
a porous soil. Water falling on a porous soil naturally leaves the 
surface through percolation, and, as we have seen, has little capacity 
in going that way for damage. Again, in the glaciated region, 
mostly all north of the Ohio, where turf crops are largely cultivated, 
these turfs present an impediment to the rapid run-olf of the waters. 

Let us now take a river south of the Ohio by way of comparison. 
There we have the TopogTaphy River. The water-powers there are 
the result of uplifts in the earth's surface and the wearing away of 
alternate layers of soft and hard rocks. The soil over a larg'e area, 
especially from Virginia to Mississippi, is residual clay. Xow, clay 
is non-porous. When the rain falls upon it, the water prefers the 
way of the angle of slope to penetrating the clay. That causes an 
excessive and ruinous rate of surface run-off water. This condition 
is aggTavated by the further fact that the crops grown are crops 
without turf — crops that require clean culture, cotton, tobacco and 
corn, principally. IN^ow, if the rivers of this section are to be pro- 
tected ; if the silt, sediment, sand, gravel, and small stones are to be 
kept out of their channels, for it is the weight of these that, added to 
the force of the current, breaks down and lets the water through to 
carry death and destruction in its wake ; if erosion is to be held down 
to a minimum, then forests must be replaced on the hills and moun- 
tain slopes, and the old fields must be covered with the litter of a new 
growth. AH the more pressing is the need of this work when we 
consider that down from the Southern Appalachians flow the rivers 
that furnish the power for the great cotton and other manufacturing 
industries from Alabama to Virginia, from the Chattahoochee to the 
Potomac. For in this imminent age of electricity water-power is 
already recognized as our second greatest means of converting raw 
products into wealth. 

Like all Gaul in ancient days, all rivers are divided into three 
parts, namely: The mountain tract, the valley tract, and the plains 
tract. Where the Missouri reaches the Eockies is the end of 
the mountain tract of the Mississippi, and thence southward to 
the Ohio would include the length of the valley tract. From the 
mouth of the Ohio the plains tract or flood plain of the Mississippi 
extends to the Gulf. It ranges in width from 5 to SO miles and covers 



3Y 

an area of 50,000 square miles of the deepest, richest soil in this 
covintry. The two other sections, as we have seen, were subject to 
the direct action of the Glaciers. jSTo forests are found on the Missouri 
from Nebraska to Western Wyoming and Montana, and on the main 
trunk of the ^Mississippi through Illinois, Iowa, and southern Min- 
nesota forests are almost wanting. In the plains tract stand the finest 
hardwood forests of the continent. In fact the Lower Mississippi and 
its tributaries, with the Appalachians and Gulf and South Atlantic, 
rivers, constitute the original hardwood area of the United States. 
So far as forestry is concerned, only the mountain and plains tracts 
need be taken into account. The high-lying coniferous forest of Idaho, 
jMontana, and Wyoming, upon the head-waters of the Missouri, exert a 
direct influence on agTiculture and life in the rich bottoms of the 
Lower Mississippi. It is the June freshets from the melting snow on 
the Eocky Mountains that keep the planter in the Lower Mississippi 
awake at night. All who have lived in northern latitudes know that 
the melting of the snow in coniferous woods is delayed at least six 
weeks in the spring. The snow in the open is gone six weeks ahead of 
the snow in the woods. Therefore if there were no forests on the upper 
reaches and sources of the Mississippi, what is now the June freshet 
would come six weeks earlier, in April. If the freshets came then 
very little damage to agriculture, whatever else followed, would be 
done, because there would be ample time after that to prepare the 
gTOund and plant the cotton crop. The river channel itself would 
undergo changes. The increased volume of water would increase the 
velocity of the current, and, if not too heavily loaded with matter in 
suspension, there would be increased corrasion, both lateral and 
vertical. This would tend to broaden and deepen the channel. 
Again, owing to the increased velocity, the matter in suspension 
would be taken farther out into the Gulf and delta formation would 
be spread over a wider area in a thinner layer. This seems to me a 
fairly logical conclusion as to what would happen in the Lower Mis- 
sissippi if the mountain and other forests around its source were 
removed. 

Xow let us retrace our steps, and, following the trail of Lewis and 
Clark, go back to Wyoming and Montana. Something happened 
there, too, after the forests were removed. Beautiful little valleys, 
where once there stood the happy homes of the farmers, are now an 
overdaver of sand, gravel, and stones; the hillsides are bare and 



38 

gullied; the mountain slopes are denuded into jagged ridges. In a 
word, erosion, induced by the unarrested rain-Avater down the moun- 
tains, has accomplished the work of ruin and desolation. 

This imaginarj' tragedy is not likely to be enacted, for all these 
forests already are within the boundaries of some of the Reserves, and 
since they come under the class of iSTational Necessity Reserves, they 
should be kept. But there are oijerations going on in this area that 
have a bearing on the waters of the Lower Mississippi, and that is Irri- 
gation. To what extent the sources of the Mississippi are to be tied 
uj) by the plans of the government for irrigation, I am not advised. 
Up to date the Chief Engineer, Mr. F. H. Newell, that most compe- 
tent and efficient officer of the Reclamation Service, either has con- 
structed or has plans for the construction of reservoirs on eight or 
ten of the tributaries of the Mississippi. These are known as the 
Shoshone, the Huntley, the Lower Yellowstone, the Belle Fourche, the 
North Platte, the Missouri River, the Milk River and the Red River 
projects. Some of these reservoirs, as, for example, that on the 
Shoshone River in northern Wyoming, which has a capacity of 
350,000 acre-feet of water, will ultimately control the entire flow of 
water in the Shoshone River. Also, the reservoir planned for the 
North Platte is to have a capacity of 1,000,000 acre-feet, and in ordi- 
nary years will control the flow of water of the North Platte. Since 
every dam across a river is an attempt to organize the river against 
topography, when all these projects are completed the Lower Missis- 
sippi will be affected, as it seems to me, to this extent, and in these 
directions: In the first place, the danger of freshets will be lessened 
because there will be less water to come down, and it will come down — ■ 
what is not absorbed by direct evaporation — distributed over a longer 
period of time. In the second place, the water starting from lower 
gradients and in smaller volume, will arrive in the main chan- 
nel with a decreased velocity. Therefore the transporting power will 
be less effective, and hence deposits and sedimentation will begin 
sooner and farther up the river, with a tendency to choke up the 
channel. 

One more aspect of the forests of the Lower Mississippi remains 
for review. If any, what are the effects of the forests here on these 
rich bottom lands in agricultural use ? A forest for the present pur- 
pose may be defined as a community of trees to which each tree makes 
a yearly contribution for the benefit of its own and its neighbor's life 



39 

and growth. This communal reciprocity is not confined alone to the 
interior of the forest. Vegetation outside and in the vicinity is 
affected by forestal influences. A short consideration of the way in 
which tree grow^th develops will illustrate this point, for the physi- 
ology of plants is now well understood. A tree in the matter of 
growth is a tripartite firm. The two working members of the firm 
are the root system and the crown. The third member, the bole or 
stem, is the storehouse which receives and utilizes the annual earn- 
ings or product of the root and crown. Annually this storehouse 
enlarges to make new storage-room for the new products. Barring 
insect attacks and the entering of fungi, apparently this process 
might be repeated each season semper et ceternum, and the tree thus 
realize that immortality for which the human race yearns. The two 
working members, however, reach out into wholly different territory 
and traffic in a wholly different line of goods ; the root system is occu- 
pied exclusively in taking in water with salts in solution, which is 
conducted through a cellular-designed pipe-line up the bole and limbs 
and twigs to the leaves; here it delivers its burden to the carbon- 
dioxide that the leaves have extracted from the air, and some of the 
w^ater, with tlie salts and the carbondioxide are broken up and com- 
pounded into carbohydrates, the plant food. As this is the proc- 
ess and these the elements used to make wood, it has been called 
"air solidified by sunshine." The disposition of the rest of the 
water is now the point of interest, for only a A'ery small percentage 
of it was consumed in tlie manufacturing o]ieration to create a food 
supply. The water is now in the leaf, unpacked of its load, and has to 
get out of the way. The back trail cannot be traveled. The water 
emerges through the stomata of the leaf into the air, that is, evapora- 
tion takes place. The amount of v^ater thus utilized by every plant 
when manufacturing food is amazing, being no less than 300 to 400 
times the dry weight of the plant. To be more specific, an oak tree 
of ordinary size, during the five months of its activity each year, will 
evaporate 560 barrels of water! What relation has this fact to agri- 
culture in the Lower Mississippi 'i The staple article grown there is 
cotton — cotton that in length, silkiness and pliability of fibre is 
equaled nowhere else on the globe. After making full allowance 
for all the other contributory causes, yet this excelling quality comes, 
the writer believes, from the atmospheric irrigation of the hardwood 
forests. The fibre of the cotton grown on the Xile is just as long, if 



40 

not longer, yet it is coarse and harsh compared to the Mississippi 
bottom staple. It is grown on a soil just as rich, but without forests 
to give the atmospheric irrigation. 

The far-famed Sea Island cotton, grown on the islands off the 
coast of South Carolina and Georgia, the most delicate and refined 
of all the cotton fibre, gets a direct atmospheric irrigation from the 
sea. 

^or is this influence of forests on agriculture limited to cotton. In 
vegetable gardens it is very evident. Of the vegetables gTOwn in two 
near-by gardens, the one in the open and the other protected by a 
border of forest trees, those from the latter garden will be far more 
tender and palatable. Again, take the sweet-corn and apples gTown in 
northern JSTew York and jSFew England, The quality-flavor in the 
sweet-corn and apples of that section is not approached elsewhere. 
Surely this is not all due to altitude and soil. Other features of the 
locality must have weight. That is a region where the foothills and 
mountain slopes of all the other States and a large part of Maine are 
forested, and the landscape is made picturesque with innumerable 
small lakes. Both direct and indirect evaporation are present, there- 
fore, to furnish a uniform moisture to the atmosphere, which enables 
the plant to put on a regular, even growth, with no hard spots from 
stops and starts in growing. Therefore, it seems that without forests 
the best results, quality being the criterion, are not attainable in agri- 
culture, for both soil and atmospheric irrigation in combined effort 
produce the finest crops. 



41 



GRA.Z[NG, WOODLAND, FOREST, DESERT AND IRRIGATED LAND, 
EXTENT OF WATER SUPPLY, IN WESTERN PUBLIC-LAND 
STATES, IN MILLIONS OF ACRES. 



AND 



States and Territories. 



Arizona — 
California 
Colorado-- 
Idaho 



Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Mexico-- 
North Dakota 

Oregon 

South Dakota - 

Utah 

Washington -- 
Wyoming 



be 

B 
'n 

s 

o 

38 
20 
40 
20 
56 
25 
42 
57 
38 
18 
38 
18 
9 
39 


G 
1 


+5 
m 

2 


1 


T3 
P. 

£ 


i 

1— ( 


14 

19 

9 

12 

7 

2 

6 

12 

1 

9 

1 

16 

13 

3 


5 
19 

5 
11 
12 


15 
20 


0.2 
15 

2 

1 

1 
22 

1 

0.5 

6 

5 
10 

2 

2 

1 


0.2 

1.5 
1.2 
0.5 
0.8 

"0^5" 
0.2 

"0^3" 

'T5' 
0.1 
0.5 


1 
4 


20 


19 




4 
13 

4 


10 

""I' 



VACANT AND RESERVED AREAS IN THE WESTERN PUBLIC-LAND 

STATES. 



State or Territory. 



Total Area, 
Acres. 



Vacant 
Acres. 



Per 

Cent. 



Reserved 
Acres. 



Per 

Cent. 



Arizona 

California 

Colorado 

Idaho 

Kansas 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Mexico - 
North Dakota 

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

South Dakota 

Utah 

Washington-- 
Wyoming 

Total — 



72,332,800 
101,350,400 
66,512,000 
53,272,000 
52,531,200 
93,491,200 
49,606,400 
70,848,000 
78,451,200 
45,308,800 
24,979,200 
61,459,200 
49,696,000 
54,380,800 
44,275,200 
62,649,600 



981,144,000 



47,082,321 
33,156,877 
30,110,586 
33,485,389 
942,483 
55,748,400 

4,481,958 
61,226,774 
52,095,312 

7,050,306 

1,983,249 
20,180,261 

9,932,113 
38,847,341 

8,566,563 
37,623,329 



65.1 
32.7 
45.3 
62.9 

1.8 
59.6 

9.0 
86.4 
66.4 
15.6 

7.9 
32.8 
20.1 
71.4 
19.3 
60.0 



20,344,487 

21,874,865 

11,197,552 

7,801,355 

120,215 

18,566,188 

628,855 

5,983,409 

7,571,223 

3,438,709 

1,437,117 

14,495,400 

12,236,301 

8,360,121 

11,392,757 

14,017,618 



442,513,262 



45.1 



159,466,172 



28.1 

21.6 

16.8 

14.4 

0.2 

19.9 

1.3 

8.4 

9.6 

7.6 

5.8 

23.6 

24.6 

15.4 

25.7 

22.4 



16.2 



From F. H. Newell's Irrigation. 



CONCLUSION. 



So far as a pamphlet permitted, it has been shown that we need, 
first of all, to enlarge and broaden onr Forest Administration. There 
should be a Board of Forest Conservators selected so as to give fnll 
representation in onr forest management to all sections, and to all 
the varied interests of our country. We should then have a responsi- 
ble body to look to for a rational and continuous forest policy. A 
timber crop can be grown and harvested but once in a century, 
and unless the starting and tending of that crop is properly begun 
and carried on, failure is sure to be the result. Where the opportuni- 
ties are so few and far between we can only minimize the risk by 
applying to the problems the combined thought and experiences of 
the best body of men the country has in reserve for such work. 

As to the field force in the Forest Service, there is need of a radi- 
cal change in the methods of appointment. As far as practical, this 
force also should be representative of the people. Selections should 
be made from the different forest divisions of the country on some 
basis of a fair proportion, population being considered. The Forester 
should owe his selection to his individual merits, determined without 
favoritism or prejudice, and should not be made to feel that his 
position is in any way a perquisite of his superior officer. Another 
very strong reason for popularizing the Forest Service and taking 
the men proportionally from every State is this : Forestry for the 
next twenty-five years will be as much a human as a technical prob- 
lem in this country. The Forester should have the experience which 
can cultivate man as well as a tree. The custom of appointment by 
Congressmen to West Point and iVnnapolis, with such limitations as 
seem necessary, might also be adopted for the Forest Service. Con- 
gress votes appropriations for the service and certainly Congress, 
and not one person, foreign to Congress, ought to say by Avhom and 
on whom that money should expended. Instead of writing and talk- 
ing Congress down, somewhat the vogue of the day, it should be writ- 
ten up. Congress is every bit as good as the voters who elect it. jSTo 
doubt there are unworthy men in Congress. So there are in every 
community. But, as a whole. Congress is patriotic and always 
contains men of great ability. . Furthermore, Congress when left 
to its ow^i calm judgment never makes a mistake. If we have 



43 

had bad legislation, it has been dne either to Executive domi- 
neering, as in the reign of Andrew Jackson, or to the excessive 
zeal and excited passions of the people, as in Reconstrnction Days. 
ISTothing could be fairer and more satisfactory than the method by 
which the Congressman nominates his cadet. Why not, also, the 
Forester ? That would do away with the sham and pretense of the 
Civil Service, which by its own rules makes the selection of a Forester 
Ijersunallsin. And what is personalisni? Personallsm is the use of 
the power of position to nullify the intent of the law. It is the 
broad avenue for the admission of favorites and relatives, while the 
gates are closed and shut tight to keep out those who are lawfully 
entitled to enter. That this correctly describes the manner of getting 
into the Forest Service to-day, no one well informed will deny. A 
small coterie of the inner circle holds every appointment in its grip. 
If President Roosevelt would only use a I'dtle stick on these little fel- 
lows he would increase greatly his chance of getting from our forests 
a big stick when needed. 

Up to date we have ninety-five Reserves west of the Missis- 
sippi River, and not one Reserve or park in the East. In the 
West we are taking every care to save mature trees, while in the 
East that very policy is destroying two young trees for every old 
tree preserved in the West. At express train speed the forests 
in the East are falling in response to the short supply of timber land 
for exploitation, the logical result of the Reserve policy in the West. 
When our Eastern timber is gone, as it will be within twenty-five 
years, we shall be wholly dependent iipon the Pacific Slope and the 
Reserves if they are maintained. But the Reserves will afford no 
relief from the Pacific Slope monopoly. All timber sold from the 
Reserves will l>e bought by the Western timber men, the only ones 
who will be prepared to bid, these bidders being the same persons 
who own the Pacific Slope timber lands. If the price of lumber 
seems high, the man who builds a home in the East twenty-five 
years from to-day will figure on brick and stone for cheapness against 
wood. But since the Reserves exist by the caprice of the President, 
and any President may restore the reserve land to entry again, is it not 
unwise to be expending large sums of money on them ? What ought 
to be done is this : Determine by a properly made up commission of 
civilians and experts which Reserves, or the parts of any Reserve, 



44 

are national necessities and make them Reserves or Parks by statute, 
to be kept permanently under forest management. 

The White Mountain Park asked for in jSTew England and the 
Southern Appalachian Park, are types of National Necessity Parks. 
The preservation of the forests there is demanded over and above 
local considerations. Prom these two areas issue the great manufac- 
turing rivers of the East, whose power is an important factor in our 
national commercial supremacy. Undoubtedly there are such areas in 
the West, or they will become such, and they ought to be reserved. All 
land withheld from entry, that does not come under the head of 
national necessity, should be restored to the public domain and become 
again our common heritage. Grazing lands are not forest lands, and 
the live-stock business is not a necessary adjunct of forestry. All 
moneys available should be spent for direct and pressing forest re- 
quirements. I^or is the large expenditure for a literary bureau 
justifiable. If I understand the accounts correctly, last year some- 
thing over $200,000 were used in literary efforts and publications of 
various kinds. This amount appropriated for five years would be 
enough to make at least one of the Reserve Parks the East is asking 
for a certainty. But if these Western Reserves are to be retained, 
and the rest of the public woodland, about 90,000,000 acres, is also 
to be reserved, there should be some compensating policy adopted for 
the East. The Irrigation Act, which seems to meet with general 
approval, offers a model. In accordance with the terms of the Irriga- 
tion Act, the money received for the public lands sold in the States 
specified is carried to a special account in the Treasury and held for 
irrigation purposes in the States in which the sold lands were. In 
a similar way let all moneys received. from the sale of timber and 
wood from the Western Reserves be carried to a special account in the 
Treasury for reforestration in the East. The Eastern forests have 
been exhausted in building up the whole country, and it is but fair 
that the whole country should aid in replacing them. What w^e want 
above all things is a uniform development of forestry and a perpetua- 
tion of the necessary percentage of forests in every State and every 
section. 

In the treatment of forestry and forest lands in the United States 
to-day no rule of general application can be laid down for every ]n'ol> 
lem. Variations will have to be admitted to fit the particular situa- 
tion. On the Pacific Slope and in the Rocky Mountain States the 



45 

problem is how to lumber and yet not destroy the yonng growth and 
leave the land stocked for a new crop. 

In the Lake States the situation and solution are different. The 
virgin white-pine forests have been removed. Lumbering came, had 
its day and went away. It abandoned thousands of acres of cut-over 
lands to the States for taxes. In Minnesota, Michigan and Wis- 
consin the crying need is reforestration — reforestration, which is but 
another name for sylviculture. 

The South Atlantic and Gulf States, so far as their coniferous 
forests are concerned, are begging to be rescued from the fate of 
the Lake States. 'No help seems to be going that way, and when 
forestry gets there it will be for reforestration. 

The old fields and cut-over lands of New England and the other 
Northeastern States have long awaited reforestration. The Appa- 
lachian Mountains and the Atlantic and Gulf rivers, especially the 
Mississippi and its lower tributaries, the area once occupied by the 
broad-leaved or hardwood species, largely demands reforestration. 
The hardwoods still standing are in immediate need of forest man- 
agement. 

Now, how much of this work is our present forest administration 
doing ? At the rate it is meeting this demand, it would require five 
hundred years to get the area just described under forest manage- 
ment. But with Compulsory Reforestration all of this work could 
and would be done with only a fraction of the cost to be borne by the 
United States Government. The States would act, individuals and 
corporations would act. There would be uniform and timely develop- 
ment of forestry throughout the United States. The beginning of 
such a movement could be started on the right road now by the 
assignment of a competent Forester, as already suggested, to each 
State administration, where the State was one that justified it by its 
possible forest area. This would only be following a military exam- 
ple, since any State that makes the request can get a West Pointer 
for the State troops. 

After reviewing the figures and estimates that have been quoted 
of our lumber supply, and after making such additions and changes 
as the circumstances seem to dictate, the stock of timber twelve inches 
and over in the United States and Territories, exclusive of Alaska, 
mifilit be classed and located as follows : 



46 

Northeastern States 25,000,000,000 ft. b. m. conifers. 

Lake States 70,000,000,000 ft. b. m. conifers. 

Rocky Mountain States 80,000,000,000 ft. b. m. conifers. 

Southern and Southwestern States 250,000,000,000 ft. b. m. conifers. 

Pacific Slope States 800,000,000,000 ft. b. ni. conifers. 

All the States 250,000,0(X),000 ft. b. ni. hardwoods. 

Total stock ' 1,475,000,000,000 ft. b. m. conifers and 

hardwoods. 

Xow, if the consumption in 1900 aggregated 45,000,000,000 feet 
b. m., there would seem to be a supply for the rise of thirty years. 
The tenure of the land upon which the timber stands is held by the 

United States, 

States, 

Corporations, 

Speculators, 

Farmers. 
The United States, according to estimates, owns about 36 per cent. ; 
farmers, 30 per cent. ; States, corporations, and speculators, 34 per 
cent. The acreage of all these holdings is supposed to run up to 
700,000,000. On the basis of these calculations our present forest 
administration is taking charge of only the government's percentage 
of the total — about 200,000,000 — with small voluntary parcels com- 
ing under management. Practically, therefore, there are about 
500,000,000 acres of woodland in the United States without forestry 
care. Hence, the grand problem for forestry in the United States is 
to get these 500,000,000 acres in charge, and to put it all m a condi- 
tion of productivity. If this could be done, and the average incre- 
ment or annual growth of an acre of well-stocked woodland is 90 feet 
b. m., it is seen at once that the acreage would put on a growth annu- 
ally equal to the consumption of the census year (1900), or 45,000,- 
000,000 feet b. m. But this result is possible only through Compul- 
sori/ Beforesiraiion. 

For many of the facts and figures in this pamphlet I am indebted to the various books of Dr. 
B. E. Fernow and of Dr. C. A. S^-henck. especially to the latter's Forest Policy. Prof. I. C. Russell's 
Rivers of North America has also been made use of freely, as well as the bulletins of the Forest Ser- 
vice. The War Department and the Department of the Interior have always responded promt>tly to 
requests for information. 



47 



LEADING LUMBER TREES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



HARDWOODS. 



White Oak Quercus alba. 

Red Oak Quercus rubra. 

Chestnut Oak Quercus prinus. 

Black Oak Quercus velutina. 

Tanbark Oak Quercus densiflora. 

Hickory Hicoria alba. 

Shagbark Hicoria ovata. 

Ash Fraxinus Atnericana. 

Beech Fagus atropunicea. 

Chestnut Castanea dentata. 

Yellow Poplar Liriodendron tulipifera. 

Yellow Birch Betula lutea. 

CONIFERS. 



Paper Birch Betula papyrifera. 

Basswood Tilia Aviericana. 

Cotton-wood Populus deltoides. 

Swamp Cotton-wood — Populus heterophylla. 

Elm Ultnus Americana. 

Walnut Juglans nigra. 

Cherry Prunus serotina. 

Maple Acer saccharum. 

Sycamore Platanus occidentalis. 

Tupelo Gum Nyssa aquatica. 

Coffee Tree Gymnocladus dioicus. 



Long-leaf Pine Pinus Palustris. 

Short-leaf Pine Pinus echinata. 

Bull Pine Pinus ponderosa. 

Jack Pine Pinus divaricata. 

Red Pine Pinus resinosa. 

White Pine Pinus strobus. 

Sugar Pine Pinus lambertiona. 

Red Spruce Picea Rubens. 

White Spruce Picea canadensis. 

Engelmon Spruce Picea engelmanni. 

Sitka Spruce Picea sitchensis. 

Hemlock Tsuga canadensis. 

Western Hemlock Tsuga heterophylla. 

Tomarock Larix laricina. 



Western Larch Larix occidentalis. 

Red Fir Pseudo tsuga taxifolio. 

Balsam Fir Abies balsamea. 

Lowland Fir Abies grandis. 

White Fir Abies concolor. 

Amabalis Fir Abies amabalis. 

Noble Fir Abies nobilis. 

Incense Cedar Libocedrus decurrens. 

Red Cedar Thuja plicata. 

White Cedar Chamascyparis thyoides. 

Yellow Cedar Chamxcyparis nootka- 



Red Juniper Juniperus unginiana. 

Bald Cypress Taxodium distichum. 

Redwood Sequoia sempervirens. 



PERCENTAGE OF FOREST AREA BY STATES. 



From Dr. C. A. Schernd's "Forest Policy, 1890.' 



OVER 70 PER CENT. 

Maine 

West Virginia 

North Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Washington 



OVER 60 PER CENT. OVER 50 PER CENT. 



Michigan 
Minnesota 
South Carolina 
Mississippi 
Louisiana 
Tennessee 
Indian Territory 
Florida 



New Hampshire 

Massachusetts 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

Kentucky 

Wisconsin 

Oregon 

Missouri 



OVER 40 PER CENT. 

Vermont 
New Jersey 
Maryland 
Idaho 



OVER 30 PER CENT. OVER 20 PER CENT. OVER 10 PER CENT. UNDER 10 PER CENT. 



New York 
Delaware 
Connecticut 
Colorado 
Rhode Island 



District of Columbia 

Ohio 

Texas 

Montana 

Arizona 

California 

Indiana 



Illinois 

Iowa 

Oklahoma 

Wyoming 

New Mexico 

Utah 



North Dakota 
South Dakota 
Nebraska 
Kansas 
Nevada 



APR 16 1106 



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